The Path to Shattered Dreams
by The Key To Darkness
Summary: Everyone has gone through the same journey since the beginning of time. The journey to discover who they truly are. And whether they tread in the Light or the Darkness. But can Nobodies do the same? Or do they all just wander aimlessly between the lines forever...? {Some OC's ; Follows 358 1/2 Days Timeline}
1. Prologue

**A quick warning: this story will contain a couple OC's, including one that is one of the main protagonists. If you don't mind that, then enjoy the story!**

_Prologue  
_

Tap, tap, tap, tap…

That was all that could be heard as a black-cloaked teen made his way down the quiet halls of The Castle That Never Was, one foot-step at a time.

Eventually, the teen made his way into the grey room, the infamous room where the Nobodies of Organization XIII would receive and prepare for their assigned missions.

Some would use it as a lounging room, to simply take a break or to relax before taking off for a mission. Sometimes, the Nobodies would use it as a chance to talk and socialize with each other.

He took a deep breath, finding himself a bit nervous at the sight of all the members being in one room together, before stepping into the room.

He looked around at all the Nobodies in the room… they all were so different from one another, yet fit together perfectly, at the same time…

The teen didn't take one step in the room before somebody jumped in front of him, causing him to leap back in surprise.

"So, you finally got the invite to become a full-fledged member of the Organization, huh?" the tall Nobody asked the teen. The Nobody was probably the most unique out of them all. He had a lean figure with the normal Organization's black cloak and two, upside-down, tear drop tattoos adorned his cheeks, below his piercing green eyes. And his hair… it was slicked straight back and spiked in almost every direction and pointed down to about the middle of his back.

Suddenly he recognized this tall, red-headed Nobody... this was definitely not the first time they had met.

"I don't know if you remember me or not, but I'm Axel," the red-head grinned, holding out his hand to shake the teen's.

The teenaged Nobody simply stared at Axel's hand, his expression blank.

"No?" Axel asked, holding his hand up a bit higher. "Alright then." And his hand dropped to his side.

The teen looked up at Axel with a raised eye-brow.

"What's wrong? Cat caught your tongue?" Suddenly a shocked expression came upon his face, "Oh no, don't tell me you've forgotten how to talk!"

The teen furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, "I… I can talk… I just… don't know what to say."

Axel sighed with relief, "Well, that's okay. Not everybody can be a good conversationalist, like myself," he boasted, sarcastically.

The teen crossed his arms, "Conversationalist?"

Axel shook his head, "Forget about it. So how's it feel to be an official member of Organization XIII?"

Xathe looked down, "I… I wouldn't exactly say I'm an official member yet…"

"Huh? What do you mean? Xemnas pretty much announced that you were one of us, earlier today. Remember? In the room, Where Nothing Gathers?" Axel asked with a confused expression.

The teen kept his gaze to the ground, again feeling at a loss of what to say.

"Xathe?" Axel asked.

The teen looked up, at hearing his name. He quickly looked up at the red-head, who stood a good head above himself. "Yeah?"

"Don't you remember?" Axel asked.

'Oh yeah… I remember now…' Xathe thought to himself, as he looked down and began to see a flashback of what happened earlier that day.

* * *

_In the room, Where Nothing Gathers, there sat eight Nobodies in eight separate thrones, that stood tall in a circle around a low platform._

_In total, there were thirteen thrones, since the original number of members was, of course, thirteen._

_But because of the events that transpired in Castle Oblivion… almost half of the members were now dead._

_Supposedly, the only member to escape the tragedy of Castle Oblivion, was Axel, who sat with the rest of the Nobodies in the room._

_It was completely silent in the room, the whole time that the Nobodies were in there…_

_And then the Nobody who sat on the highest throne, directly in front of the lower platform, began to speak._

_"I, Xemnas, leader of the Organization XIII… have gathered you all here, today, to welcome a Nobody who we have invited to join our numbers…"_

_Everybody had racing thoughts, once he said that. Why would the Organization need yet another member? Who was this new member? Most of them were confident that the Organization could accomplish their mission with the current amount of members that they had._

_Xemnas smiled lightly, closing his eyes, "I'm sure you are all wondering why we are receiving so many new additions to our Organization recently. Well… it seems fate would have it be this way. And the more members we have, to assist us in completing our mission to create Kingdom Hearts, to quicker we will achieve that goal…"_

_All the members looked up at him, as he trailed off._

_He opened his yellow eyes, silver locks of hair hanging in front of his face, which only intensified the evil his eyes._

_"I would hope that you all understand. After all… we wouldn't want a disagreement, now would we?" he asked in a sickeningly sweet tone._

_The member of Organization XIII all looked away from him in silence._

_"Excellent…" he raised a hand into the air, as if summoning something to the platform below._

_Footsteps could be heard coming up the steps, that led up to the platform below them._

_Soon, a hooded figure revealed itself to them, as it walked to the center of the platform. It was a person, most likely a Nobody like the rest of them since he adorned the same black cloak as them._

_"Welcome," Xemnas greeted the figure, his voice as deep as usual._

_The figure looked up at Xemnas, its face still hidden from the others._

_"Members of Organization XIII… I am proud to welcome…"_

_The figure gripped the rim of his hood with both of his black-gloved hands…_

_"Xathe… our Number XV."_

_The figure slowly slid the hood off of his head to reveal a head covered in black locks of very spiky hair. Long bangs were swept to the one of half of his face, so that they wouldn't get in his eyes, and on the other half the bangs pointed out from his forehead, freely. And from the back of his head to the front, about four black spikes of hair pointed out diagonally in a row, smallest one on the back of his head and one larger spike pointing out towards the front, behind his bangs. And his eyes glowed with stunning blue color._

_He looked up… he felt as if he should say something, but nothing came out. So he simply stared up in silence… though a look of strong determination was glued to his face._

* * *

Xathe looked from his flashback, "Yeah… I remember."

"Well then… how does it feel?" Axel asked with a curious expression.

Xathe put one hand on his hip, and brought the other up to his lower lip as he thought about how he felt…

He shrugged, crossing his arms again, "No different then before I came here."

Axel smirked, "Fair enough. Guess being part of this boring crew isn't really the most exciting thing in the world, huh?"

Xathe nodded, the shadow of a smile barely slipping across his lips. "I have to go. There's things that I need to take care of. Can't slack off on my first day on the job."

"You should tell Demyx that! The guy's **always** slacking off," Axel chuckled.

Xathe chuckled lightly, before brushing past Axel and making his way over to Saix, the second-in-command, who stood in front of the windows that made up the entire back wall of the grey room.

"Hey, Xathe, wait…" Axel called out to Xathe, without turning to face him.

Xathe turned to him, with a raised eyebrow.

The red-headed Nobody paused for a second before turning to look at him from over his shoulder, "Don't let it get you down, alright?"

Xathe's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"At Castle Oblivion… I know it isn't easy to deal with… feelings of betrayal," Axel trailed off a bit, before turning to face Xathe fully. "But you can't let that distract you. Just… stay focused. You know what you have to do."

Xathe turned his gaze to the floor again, sadness almost penetrating his determined expression.

He then turned to Axel again, his look of determination returning, and more intense than before.

"Right. Thanks…"

Axel nodded, with a smirk, before turning and walking away.

Xathe turned to Saix again, and approached the tall Nobody.

Saix held a cold expression on his face, and his yellow eyes only added to the coldness that radiated from him. A scar in the shape of an 'X' laid on the bridge of his nose, and long blue hair flowed down to his lower back and spiked out on the back of his head.

The Nobody looked down at Xathe and glared, "What is it that you want…?"

Xathe stared up at him , unfazed. "I'm ready to start my first mission. Do you have a job open, that I can do?"

Saix blinked once, before finally answering, "No, you will begin your first mission tomorrow. Xemnas's orders… and he requests your presence at the top of the Castle, as soon as you are prepared to speak to him. Don't forget, pawn."

"I'll commit it to memory. Thanks," Xathe said, coldly, turning around and exiting the grey room.

* * *

Xemnas stood at the edge of the top of the Castle… staring up into the sky, at the slowly growing heart-shaped moon in the sky.

"Oh, Kingdom Hearts… though at present, you are small and contain the hearts of few… you will grow to become something great… something that no mortal can fathom. Someday… you will be," he thought aloud.

A portal of darkness, or a dark corridor, opened several yards behind him. It closed as quickly as it opened, and in its wake was Xathe, the newest member of Organization XIII.

"Ah, you are here," Xemnas smiled lightly.

Xathe nodded, "Yeah. What was it you needed me for?"

Xemnas looked down, still facing away from Xathe. "I have summoned you here to remind you of your duty, here, at Organization XIII."

Xathe's determined expression faltered a bit, at hearing his leader's words.

Xemnas finally looked at Xathe, from over his shoulder.

"You have one duty here. You are to serve as a pawn for the members of Organization of XIII. You may have survived the tests done on you, at Castle Oblivion, but that does not make you special. You have not yet proven yourself to me. Therefore, you rank no higher than the Dusks in my eyes…"

Xathe looked down, feeling mixed emotions at what Xemnas told him.

"But if you really do want to prove yourself to me… I know a way that you can," Xemnas paused, turning away from Xathe again and closing his eyes.

Xathe looked up, with a hopeful expression.

Xemnas continued, "There is somebody who is roaming the worlds around us. We do not know who he is, or what his intentions are, but he has wandered the worlds while wearing a cloak of the Organization. He is a blasphemer of our cause, and needs to be eliminated. If you find him, and end him, you will have earned the title of Number XV."

The raven-haired teen nodded, a smirk slowly sliding across his lips. "Don't worry. I'll find him. No matter, the cost."

Xemnas smiled lightly, "Then prove it to me. You will begin tomorrow. Now… you are dismissed."

Xathe nodded, and turned around, disappearing into another dark corridor, that vanished right afterwards.

"He doesn't know what he's up against. I'm doubtful that he will succeed in defeating the unknown stranger that wears our cloak… let alone succeed in finding him. But if he does… perhaps my plans for him will be put into action. We will see…"

And the Nobody opened his eyes... turning his gaze to Kingdom Hearts in the distance...

...

_ Kingdom Hearts _

_The Path to Shattered Dreams  
_

* * *

**A/N: That ends the Prologue of the story! I hope you enjoyed it. It seemed kind of boring to me in some parts… if you felt the same, don't worry, the story will be picking up pace a lot in the first chapter/next chapter!**

**This is actually a remake of my original story The Path of Broken Dreams, so I guess you could consider this a Final Mix of sorts… but at the same time, this story will have a lot of changes from my original.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading, and please remember to review!**

**-**_**KtD**_


	2. Chapter I: Nobody

**Hello, Key To Darkness here, and back with the official Chapter 1 of The Path To Shattered Dreams! So I'm just going to thank those who reviews, and get right to the story.**

**Oh, and I forgot to mention a couple things last chapter! First, these are all of the main protagonists in this story: Xathe, Xion, Axel, Namine`, and Roxas.**

**Second, the genres and sub-genres of this story are: Action/Adventure, Drama, Friendship, and Romance (Yes, there will be pairings in this story).**

**Now that that's out of the way... enjoy- **_**KtD**_

* * *

**_Chapter I: Nobody_**

…

_**Day 29**_

* * *

...

Xathe slowly walked down the hallway, leading to the grey room

So many thoughts raced through his mind…

His first mission was today… what would he be assigned to do? What world would he go to? What would it look like?

Xathe stopped at the entrance of the grey room… there weren't as many members in the grey room as there were the other day, but Xathe still found himself a bit nervous about going in…

"I'm ready… I know I am," he nodded confidently.

Xathe stepped into the grey room when suddenly he heard someone shouting behind him, "I can't believe I over-slept! I need to hurry to my next mission-!"

Suddenly something slammed into him from behind, throwing both him and the object to the floor.

Xathe yelped from the impact and fell forward onto his hands and knees, and he heard the object do the same, but it fell backwards instead of forwards.

Xathe turned his head over his shoulder to look at the thing that slammed into him… and it wasn't just a thing. It was a fellow Nobody.

Xathe quickly stood up and turned to the small, hooded Nobody, a scowl plastered to his face, "Why don't you watch where you're going?!"

By now, everybody that was in the room was watching them…

The unknown person rubbed the back of their head and sat up, "I-I'm sorry… I didn't see you there! I guess I got distracted because I over-slept…" Their voice was high-pitched and sounded a bit strange… almost as if this Nobody was a girl. But then again it was hard for him to tell…

Xathe rolled his eyes, "You're such a pest."

He/She looked down, obviously embarrassed.

Xathe sighed, before holding out his hand to it.

It looked up and lightly smiled under its hood, before grabbing onto his hand and letting him pull it onto its feet.

Everybody in the room went back to doing their own things, seeing the confrontation was over.

"So what were you in such a hurry for?" Xathe asked, crossing his arms.

"I've been in a hurry to get my missions done and out of the way recently. Ever since my friend, Roxas… went to sleep… I've been forced to work on my missions alone and it's not very easy."

Suddenly it gasped, "Oh, that's right! I have to get started on my mission!"

With that, it brushed past Xathe and ran up to Saix.

He turned and watched the Nobody as they talked to Saix, '_Is working alone… really that hard?_' He thought to himself.

He shrugged it off and turned fully around to walk over to Saix as well.

As Xathe approached them, Saix suddenly lifted his hand and aimed it to the side of him, and a corridor of darkness opened beside them.

The unknown figure quickly ran inside of it, without hesitation, and it closed behind it and vanished.

Xathe turned back to Saix and stopped, a few feet in front of him.

"I'm ready for my first mission…" Xathe stated, looking up into the intense golden eyes of Saix.

Saix glared coldly at Xathe, causing him to look away.

"I was originally going to assign you to take care of an infestation of Heartless that was recently reported… but it seems the puppet has already taken the job," Saix states in a monotone.

"Puppet?" asked Xathe.

"The Organization member who just ran off," Saix replied.

"Oh… darn…" he growled.

"It doesn't matter. I believe Xemnas has assigned you with hunting down an imposter. Am I correct?" asked Saix.

Xathe looked back up at him and nodded.

"Well… that is your mission for today. Let's hope you accomplish it without any… _complications_…" he trailed off.

"I-…" Xathe began to say, but then he stopped himself. "Understood…"

Saix nodded in approval of Xathe's obedience. Then he raised his arm to the side, like before, and summoned another dark corridor. His arm then lowered and he turned back to Xathe.

"Be inconspicuous. Go in, do your job, and then come back. If you're reckless… then you're going to draw too much attention to yourself and then-"

"I know what to do. Just let me do my job…" Xathe deadpanned turning and disappearing into the dark corridor.

Saix glared at the back of his head, as he did so. '_It looks like the delinquent is still having issues with respecting his authorities. No matter. We'll break him of that rebellious attitude in no time. He just needs to keep in mind the reason we even allowed him to join. Hopefully that will be enough to break that selfish pride of his._'

* * *

…

Xathe stepped out of the dark corridor and gazed around at his surroundings. He saw that he was in the alley of a mid-sized town, with buildings on either side of him. It was a serene and relatively nice place to be in, from Xathe's point of view.

He looked up at the sky, to see a breathtaking orange color that lay gracefully over the little world and radiated with the warmth of the sun. It gave him a peaceful feeling… like the feeling he got when he would wake up to begin a brand new day…

The things he sensed in the quiet town were strange… it was almost as if this town was in the middle of all things… the town of twilight.

"Wow… I guess I did forget to ask Saix where my first mission was to take place…" Xathe contemplated to himself.

The sound of the dark corridor closing, made Xathe turn around to look at the spot that it disappeared from.

He formed a serious expression, "No turning back now…"

Xathe turned back around to see that the alley led to a corner that the sunlight was shining into.

He took that as a sign that he was to go in that direction.

Immediately, he pulled his hood over his head, and walked down to the end of the alley.

* * *

…

Xathe took a couple steps out of the alley, to see that he was in some sort of sandlot.

"There's lots of open space out here… I doubt the imposter would be in a place like this…" Xathe sighed, crossing his arms and looking down to think about where to look.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of voices coming from outside the opposite entrance of the sandlot.

'_Go, Xathe! Be inconspicuous!_' he scolded himself inwardly, spinning on one heel and rushing around the corner he just came from and then pressing himself against the wall.

The voices became louder and Xathe could now hear what they were saying, meaning they were now in the sandlot.

"Oh, hush, Hayner! You're so full of it!" a girl's voice laughed.

"Hey, I mean it! I betcha' I could beat **anybody** in Twilight Town, at this game!" the male voice replied, boastfully.

'_Twilight Town? So that's the name of this world… how ironic…_' Xathe chuckled inwardly.

"At Struggle? No way, Hayner!" another male replied to him.

"I'm serious though! I could even beat Seifer, if I really tried hard enough!" the first male, Hayner, boasted again.

"Hmm… I dunno, Seifer is pretty tough from what I've seen," the female voice stated, obviously not falling for Hayner's boasts.

"You watch! The next time I face him in a Struggle fight, I'll show you all what I'm made of! I might even be champion material, if I do that…" Hayner trailed off, obviously fantasizing.

"Olette, do you think he could actually beat Seifer?" the second male asked the girl, almost as if he was in awe.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Olette laughed. "Now let's go get some sea-salt ice cream. I hear they're giving away some sort of prize to whoever gets the stick that has the word _'WINNER'_ on it!"

By now, Xathe had peeked around the corner to try and get a good look at the small group of friends…

He poked his head out enough, to see them… but it was too late. They were leaving the sandlot… rushing out of the sandlot, actually.

"Come on, Pence! You can run faster than that!" Hayner yelled, leading the group out of the sandlot.

Both he and Olette disappeared around a corner and Pence was still rushing towards the exit… very slowly.

The boy was short and round, obviously not very athletic or energetic at all.

"Guys, wait up! You know I'm not good at running!" He shouted, breathing very heavily.

Suddenly he tripped, and Xathe watched as something shiny dropped out of his pocket as he did so.

"What's that…?" Xathe asked out loud.

The tubby teen picked himself up and turned around to where Xathe was, "Huh?"

Xathe instantly zipped back into his hiding spot… and prayed to Kingdom Hearts that Pence didn't see him.

"Hm… I could've sworn I heard somebody say something…" The teen contemplated. Xathe could tell that he went back to following Hayner and Olette, because his huffing and puffing echoed throughout the sandlot.

Xathe then waited until everything got quiet again, and he peeked out into the sandlot…

Seeing that the coast was clear he quickly made his way towards the exit that the group of friends just ran out of.

He stopped, feeling himself step on something. "Huh?"

He lifted his foot to see it was the shiny thing that dropped out of Pence's pocket. Xathe picked it up to see it was some sort of coin.

It didn't look overly valuable, but Xathe went ahead and took it anyways, sticking it inside his cloak.

"Alright… time to continue my search," Xathe nodded, making his way out of the exit of the sandlot.

* * *

…

Xathe found himself in front of a huge clock tower. He turned to the right, in front of the giant clock tower and saw that it was a dead end.

He reached the end of the line.

"Damn… I've looked everywhere. He's just not here…" Xathe growled. He clenched his fists and looked down at the ground, distraught by the failure of his first mission.

He turned around and headed back to where he came from, when he saw a sign to his right, at the front of the clock tower.

He read it, "_Station… Plaza_?"

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming from the entrance of the clock tower… or station plaza as the sign said.

He quickly turned around to see a hooded figure slowly making their way down the steps behind him…

"Who are you?" He asked with a tone of aggressiveness.

The figure instantly looked over to him, as they stopped at the bottom of the steps.

Xathe waited for them to answer… but they just stared at him, almost as if they were trying to solve some sort of puzzle.

"I won't ask again! Who are you?" Xathe asked, clenching his right fist and preparing to summon his weapon.

The figure backed up a few steps… they seemed… almost afraid.

"Tell me!" Xathe spat, a Keyblade suddenly entering his grip in a flash of light.

The unknown, cloaked figure looked down at Xathe's revealed Keyblade in shock. They held both arms out at him, as if trying to tell him to stop.

It looked like they were trying to speak… but Xathe heard nothing.

"You're the imposter… aren't you?" Xathe asked, slowly. He pulled his Keyblade back, getting into his battle stance.

The figure shook their head slowly… then they reached up and gripped the rims of their hood, pulling it off of their head.

Xathe's eyes widened in horror as long, blonde locks of hair and bright blue eyes were revealed to him.

"No…" Xathe gasped, backing up as a flash intercepted his vision and then disappeared. The figure began to walk forward… slowly bringing their arm up and holding it out to him...

"No! Get away!" Xathe shouted, dropping onto his knees as unknown visions and memories filled his mind every time the figure took a step towards him.

Xathe dropped his Keyblade and grabbed the sides of his hooded head in agony. "What are you doing to me? Stop!"

The revealed figure's lips moved as if they were speaking, but all Xathe could hear were voices merging together into a maddening collage of noises. They became louder and louder…

Xathe shut his eyes as tight as he possibly could, before opening them in a cold glare at the figure… at the girl… who stood in front of him.

"No… I want nothing more to do with you…" Xathe whispered.

The girl stopped, several yards away from him. The voices became a loud ringing sound that muted everything else around him.

"You want to take my memories away from me again… then you're going to have to fight me for them…" Xathe paused. "... Namine`."

The blonde girl's eyes widened in shock at Xathe's words…

Xathe instantly grabbed his Keyblade off the ground and lunged up at Namine`… his blade drawn to kill.

"Just go away!" Xathe screamed, swinging his Keyblade at the cloaked Namine`, who turned away and held her arm out at Xathe, trying to protect herself.

And suddenly a flash erupted between them…

…

* * *

**This marks the end of Chapter 1. And what a way to end it, huh?**

**What do you think will happen next? Why would Namine` be there… and in a cloak of the Organization? And who do you think the Nobody at the beginning of the Chapter was?**

**All your questions shall be answered in the next chapter of The Path to Shattered Dreams!**

**-**_**KtD**_


End file.
